


Conscience

by Not_You



Series: Charismatic Minifauna [2]
Category: Nero Wolfe - Rex Stout
Genre: Canon Era, Character Study, Daemons, Fer-de-Lance, Gen, Guilt, Short, Spiders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-25
Updated: 2015-01-25
Packaged: 2018-03-08 23:14:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3227138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Not_You/pseuds/Not_You
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the staged mugging in <span class="u">Fer-de-Lance</span>, part of Archie feels bad about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Conscience

All through Wolfe's interview with Maria Maffei and Anna, Bernadette paced around like a panther, always stopping by Anna's chair to fuss over Giorgio, Anna's dumb little dormouse daemon. She was overdoing it, I thought, but I could also feel her genuine concern for the runt. When Anna coughed up the evidence and Maria Maffei got so mad at her for not telling before, Bernadette jumped at Maria's raven even faster than I went for the woman herself. Of course Wolfe managed to stop the whole thing with voice alone, but Aletheia actually twitched, where she had been sitting there like the world's most horrible brooch. In the quiet moment that followed, Bernadette touched noses with Giorgio, and probably only didn't start grooming him because of how stupid it would've made us feel.

When all was said and done and I was driving Anna and Maria home, Bernadette rode in the back seat with them, purring soothingly at the stupefied little dormouse. If Anna wasn't very bright, Giorgio was actually dumb, and neither of them said a word the whole way. Bernadette's big green eyes were locked on me, though, and I knew I was in for it once we got back to the brownstone. She was quiet while I made my way up and badgered Wolfe, but as soon as I shut the door of my room behind us, she spoke.

"You know, that was a pretty rotten thing we did tonight." She flicked her tail and hopped up onto the foot of the bed.

I groaned, because it was past two in the morning and I wanted to sleep more than anything. Bernadette really had taken an unaccountable liking to Giorgio, and clearly I was going to have to suffer for it. "Yeah," I told her, with a bit of sneer to it, "and it's done. It's not like anybody hurt the kid, anyway."

She bristled at me a little. "Accidents happen, and where you're hurt doesn't always show."

I sighed, sitting on the bed to take off my socks. "Bernadette..."

"Archie." Her tail flicked again. "I'm supposed to be your conscience, let me do it."

"I've got a conscience," I grumbled. "I know damn well we've done wrong, and you know two wrongs can make a right. You want Kimball running free?" Besides, it wasn't as if Bernadette hadn't had a good time being dolled up in white powder and getting up to no good, and of course she knew I knew it.

She sighed. "I don't. But we're not giving that kid any measly hundred bucks."

That was one thing we could definitely agree on, and we got to sleep after all, Bernadette tucked in against my chest in her usual way, my hand woven into her rough-soft fur.

Later, Aletheia didn't so much as quiver a leg when Wolfe and I were dickering over the thousand dollars for Anna, but she did waggle her pedipalps a bit and start crawling up the side of Wolfe's head when I grilled him a bit about killing E.D. Kimball. I didn't really care, Kimball being what he was. It's just fun to watch Wolfe squirm, since he so rarely obliges. Maybe he felt like he owed me something for my exemplary service, who knows?


End file.
